Allen is the new man

Former assistant coach will now guide Horsemen

 

November 29, 2018



Like Mike, Tyrel wants to be like Mike.

Stepping into the void created by the retirement of Mike Cole, who is still the athletic director in Plains, Tyrel Allen will have a largely new team of Horsemen to guide this season in his first year as the head man for Plains boys basketball.

And Allen will have some work to do to match the last two years of Cole’s storied career as the Horsemen’s coach. Cole guided the Plains boys to records of 20-4 and 20-5 in those seasons and into the Western C divisional tourneys following both of those campaigns.

Eight of the nine losses in those last two years came to Arlee and Manhattan Christian, the State C champions and State C runners-up both of those seasons, meaning Allen will have a lot to live up to in terms of wins and losses in his first season on the hot seat. And he will have a largely untested team to do it with.

Seniors Matt McCracken and Derick Curry both saw lots of time – McCracken as a starter and Curry as the sixth man – but beyond those two the orange and black will be mighty green this season.

A Plains native (he played on Plains’ last divisional championship team and graduated from PHS back in 1998), Allen appreciates the guidance he received as an assistant coach from Cole, since he began serving in that role back in 2014. Fittingly, Allen is the guidance counselor at the school of his choice.

“Mike and I have real similar philosophies when it comes to basketball,” Allen offered, “and he really helped our holdover kids come a long ways with their play since they were freshmen. I feel like he set us up for this season very well.”

Besides McCracken and Curry, Allen says he has “a lot of sophomores and juniors that are all about basketball,” but that many of them have not yet competed at the varsity level and will have to learn on the run.

The Horsemen begin the season with a pair of games in the Western C Tip-Off Tournament in Frenchtown this week, facing off with Drummond Friday and Valley Christian Saturday.

“These games would be nice to win,” Allen said, “but the main thing for us will be to see how we are meshing with each other. It will provide us a good baseline for what we need to work on moving forward.”

 

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